Once I Was A Princess

I often wonder how many people can pinpoint the exact moment that their lives were changed irrevocably: smashed, redefined, uncategorised and forever divorced from the normal comprehension of their peers.

In Melbourne, in the spring of 1980, Jacqueline Pascarl, then a trusting 17-year-old, met a young architecture student called Bahrin. They fell in love, made plans to marry, and travelled to Bahrin's home, the oil-rich Islamic State of Terengganu, where they prepared for life as a royal couple—he as a Malaysian Prince, and she as his wife, Lady Yasmin.

And then, things began to go horribly wrong. In this gripping account, Jacqueline Pascarl tells first-hand how a fairy tale turned sour; how her husband changed into a tyrannical, demanding stranger; how the royal compound she lived in became a prison until, at the age of 22, with her two young children, she returned to Australia. There, she fought to gain sole parental custody.

Seven years later, the Prince exacted his revenge—kidnapping the children. What had up till then been a private drama now became an international news story, one with heart-breaking consequences.